Chapter Six

Shocked at Blair's pregnancy and the fact she'd hidden it, Chuck avoided his family that night. He couldn't have hidden his panic at the uncertain future of his marriage, but he had to keep fighting. Blair and the baby needed him to save the business and their family.

The next morning, Chuck walked the stairs up to Serena and Dan's Brooklyn loft. Several miles from where he and Serena had grown up, the loft bore the loving stamp of a family in it's neatly maintained appearance and well loved inhabitance.

He might not be so welcome once he suggested that Serena was neglecting her friend.

He rapped on the door. It swung open. Serena peered around it and Chuck got to the point. 'Why haven't you been visiting Blair?'

'And good morning to you.' she stood aside. 'Come in, Chuck, and tell me what is making you more surly than usual.'

Yesterday's news about the baby gave him plenty to be surly about, but he still wouldn't discuss his growing family, even with his sister. A new thought made him uneasy. As close as his sister and wife had been, Serena might already know. He couldn't ask. He didn't want to know if Blair trusted Serena more than she trusted him.

'Blair needs to see everyone who might help her remember. You only stayed five minuets yesterday.' he started. 'She's been there for you, Serena. All your life.'

'I know. She helped me in school. She supported me with boys and picked up the pieces when it didn't work out. She was there for me when I was pregnant and supported me on my wedding day even though she doesn't approve of Dan.' He steeped inside the loft. 'Are you afraid to see her?'

She met his gaze. Not for the first time, this woman who he'd know his whole life disconcerted him. In silence Serena led him to the kitchen. She poured a cup of strong black coffee and set it on the counter in front of him.

'I'm terrified. Blair is part of me. We share so many of the same memories I'm not sure who I am with out her.'

Her frankness only emphasized their serious fix. Serena had become his friend as he'd fallen in love with her friend. He'd helped her we he could, but she never confided in him this way.

And now they were going through the same crisis. Who were they when Blair, the glue that had held their makeshift family together, no longer knew them?

He closed his eyes. A shout rose in his throat. Pure pain that only his Blair could alleviate. Only his Blair no longer existed.

'I understand why you're reluctant,' he managed to say, 'She may not remember you, but she needs you. You are a part of each other. You can tell her things about her past that the rest of us don't know.'

'I don't know her better than you do, Chuck.' she took another coffee cup from the cabinet. 'I'm only her friend. You're her husband.'

Not a very good husband. He'd blamed their uneasiness on the stress of running a company. He'd assumed they'd find their way back to each other once he had settled the Jack issue.

'What's on your mind, Chuck? Something else is going on.' Serena's conviction reminded him of Blair after she'd seen through all his half truths. 'You've never stormed over here before to point out my responsibilities to Blair.'

'Help her. Make her remember.'

'Make her?' Serena blanched. 'You're thinking she chose to forget? I wonder, too. Who made her so unhappy? You? Me? I've let her take care of me as if she really were my older sister,'

'She is, you know she considers you a sister. She never meant to make you feel like you couldn't take care of yourself.'

'Sometimes I couldn't. I needed her, but I could never admit it. I always wanted to prove I knew how to handle my own life.'

Her guilt sounded too familiar. He'd needed Blair to believe he was he knight in shining armor, but he'd tried so hard to be a professional success - and then failed so spectacularly - he'd broken her ability to trust him at all.

Damn it, he'd lean how to win back her faith, but she still needed the rest of her family. 'Why don't you take care of her this time?'

She widened her eyes, as if she hadn't thought of the possibilities. That happened when guilt overwhelmed you. 'What's to stop me?' She toasted him with her coffee cup. 'I will go. Tonight. Evening visitor's hours.'

He set his own cup on the counter. 'I have to go into the office for a few hours. Can you fax me the budget for the medical advertising?'

'Sure. Why are you working on Sunday, Chuck?'

He had no choice. He still had to save the company. Serena and too many other depended on him for their jobs. 'I've spent so much time at the hospital I have to catch up on paperwork. How close are you to the figures we discussed when we started the project? Not over budget anywhere?'

She plucked a pair of glasses from the shelf beside the sink and slid them onto her nose. 'I'll get the file now if you want. We're close on budget.'

Like Serena, he felt more at ease talking about work, a topic her and Blair rarely discussed. Lately, he'd tended to share tense silence with his wife. Silence couldn't bide easily between two people hiding life-altering secrets.

END CHAPTER SIX

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